Why Gun Safety Is So Important
By Jeffrey Nelson
According to the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, most unintentional gun-related child deaths takes place in the home when kids are playing with a loaded gun while their parents are away.
The majority of these accidents stem from kids’ having access to firearms and ammunition.
The same source reports that 70 percent of kids under 10 know where their parents keep their guns. 36 percent of them have admitted that they’ve handled the guns. It’s always safe to assume no matter how well you think you’ve hidden a firearm, kids will find them.
Instead, as the United States General Accounting Office recommends, put a child-proof safety lock on your firearm as well as a loading indicator. Of course, child-proof locks aren’t safe against older kids who can figure things out, so you will need to teach older kids about safety locks, and how to read loading indicators as well.
Education is a key component in helping reduce gun-related accidents.
In other words, if there’s a gun in the house, it’s best to teach your kids what could go wrong. Also, it’s advisable to keep the gun in a safe and make sure the safe is approved for firearms. Some safes are not compatible nor meant to house firearms.
Be Prepared for Kids to Be Curious & Experimental
Teach your kids about gun safety before they get curious and experiment for themselves. It’s a good idea to educate them in a controlled setting. While a couple of studies on teaching gun safety to preschoolers isn’t reassuring about how much kids will apply what they learn in real life, don’t wait for your kid to find your hidden gun and play with them.
Also, until kids are older than preschool, the best method is a physical deterrent.
Teach kids to follow some rules when they find a gun:
- stop whatever they’re doing, to not touch the gun
- leave it where it is and call an adult right away
- When in doubt, always assume the firearm is loaded and ready for action
Then make sure that you keep your firearms locked and secure, with the locked ammunition stored separately from the locked gun. Keep the keys in a third hidden place.
Make Sure to Secure Places Your Kids Visit
Your home may be safe, but what about the other places your kid visits? The California Department of Public Health reports that more than 75% of guns used by youth in attempted suicides and accidental injuries were from their home, or from that of a relative or friend.
Find out if your relatives and the parents of your kids’ friends also know about safe gun storage. You can share this excellent infographic on gun safety with them to make them better informed.
If a few simple gun safety measures are taken, a large portion of the accidental firearm deaths each year could be prevented. While not an epidemic by any means, a little education could go a long way to helping save a handful of children each year.
Jeffrey Nelson is an online entrepreneur who runs a few different sites ranging from technology to business. He is passionate about many things, one of them being gun safety. To check out more of what he is working on, head on over to his biometric technology site